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Line of English monarchs
This list of kings and queens of the Kingdom of England begins with Alfred the Great, King of Wessex, one of the petty kingdoms to rule a portion of modern England. While Alfred was not the first king to lay claim to rule all of the English, his rule represents the first unbroken line of Kings to rule the whole of England, the House of Wessex. The last monarch was Queen Anne, who became Queen of Great Britain when England merged with Scotland to form a union in 1707. Arguments are made for a few different kings deemed to control enough of the ancient kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxons to be deemed the first King of England. For example, Offa, king of Mercia, and Egbert, king of Wessex, are sometimes described as kings of England by popular writers, but not by all historians. In the late eighth century Offa achieved a dominance over southern England that did not survive his death in 796. In 829, Egbert conquered Mercia, but he soon lost control of it. By the late ninth century Wessex was the dominant Anglo-Saxon kingdom. Its king, Alfred the Great, was overlord of western Mercia and used the title King of the Angles and Saxons, but he never ruled eastern and northern England, which was then the Danelaw. His son Edward the Elder conquered the eastern Danelaw, but Edward's son Æthelstan became the first king to rule the whole of England when he conquered Northumbria in 927, and he is regarded by some modern historians as the first king of England. The Principality of Wales was incorporated into the Kingdom of England under the Statute of Rhuddlan in 1284, and in 1301 King Edward I invested his eldest son, the future King Edward II, as Prince of Wales. Since that time, except for King Edward III, the eldest sons of all English monarchs have borne this title. After the death of Queen Elizabeth I without issue, in 1603, the crowns of England and Scotland were joined in personal union under King James VI of Scotland, who became James I of England. By royal proclamation, James styled himself "King of Great Britain", but no such kingdom was created until 1707, when England underwent legislative union with Scotland to form the new Kingdom of Great Britain, during the reign of Queen Anne. House of Wessex *Egbert *Æthelwulf *Æthelbald *Æthelberht *Æthelred *Alfred the Great *Edward the Elder *Ælfweard *Æthelstan *Edmund I *Eadred *Eadwig *Edgar the Peaceful *Edward the Martyr *Æthelred the Unready House of Denmark England came under the control of Sweyn Forkbeard, a Danish king, after an invasion in 1013, during which Æthelred abandoned the throne and went into exile in Normandy. *Sweyn Forkbeard House of Wessex (restored, first time) Following the death of Sweyn Forkbeard, Æthelred the Unready returned from exile and was again proclaimed king on February 3, 1014. His son succeeded him after being chosen king by the citizens of London and a part of the Witan, despite ongoing Danish efforts in wresting the crown from the West Saxons. *Æthelred the Unready *Edmund Ironside House of Denmark (restored) Following the decisive Battle of Assandun on October 18, 1016, King Edmund signed a treaty with Cnut in which all of England except for Wessex would be controlled by Cnut. Upon Edmund's death on November 30, Cnut ruled the whole kingdom as its sole king. *Cnut the Great *Harold Harefoot *Harthacnut House of Wessex (restored, second time) After Harthacnut, there was a brief Saxon Restoration between 1042 and 1066. *Edward the Confessor *Harold Godwinson *Edgar Ætheling House of Normandy In 1066, several rival claimants to the English throne emerged. Among them were Harold Godwinson, elected king by the Witenagemot after the death of Edward the Confessor, as well as Harald Hardrada, King of Norway who claimed to be the rightful heir of Harthacnut, and Duke William II of Normandy, descendant of Rollo, founder of the royal House of Normandy, vassal to the King of France, and first cousin once-removed of Edward the Confessor. Harald and William both invaded separately in 1066. Godwinson successfully repelled the invasion by Hardrada, but ultimately lost the throne of England in the Norman conquest of England. After the Battle of Hastings, William the Conqueror made permanent the recent removal of the capital from Winchester to London. Following the death of Harold Godwinson on October 14, the Anglo-Saxon Witenagemot elected as king Edgar the Ætheling, the son of Edward the Exile and grandson of Edmund Ironside, but the young monarch was unable to resist the invaders and was never crowned. William was crowned King William I of England on Christmas Day 1066, in Westminster Abbey, and is today known as William the Conqueror, William the Bastard or William I. * William the Conqueror * William II of England * Henry I of England House of Blois Henry I left no legitimate male heirs, his son William Adelin having died in the White Ship disaster. This ended the direct Norman line of kings in England. Henry named his eldest daughter, the dowager Empress Matilda as his heir. Before naming Matilda as heir, however, he had been in negotiations to name his nephew Stephen of Blois as his heir. When Henry died, Stephen invaded England, and in a coup d'etat had himself crowned instead of Matilda. The period which followed is known as The Anarchy, as parties supporting each side fought in open warfare on both Britain and on the continent for the better part of two decades. * Stephen, King of England Disputed claimants *Empress Matilda House of Anjou Stephen came to an agreement with Matilda in November 1153 with the signing of the Treaty of Wallingford, where Stephen recognized Prince Henry, son of Matilda and her second husband Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou, as the heir-apparent to the throne in lieu of his own son, who had died that August. The royal house descended from Matilda and Geoffrey is widely known by two names, the House of Anjou (after Geoffrey's title as Count of Anjou) or the House of Plantagenet, after his sobriquet. Some historians prefer to group the subsequent kings into two groups, before and after the loss of the Angevin Empire, although they are not different royal houses. The Angevins ruled over the Angevin Empire during the 12th and 13th centuries, an area stretching from the Pyrenees to Ireland. They did not regard England as their primary home until most of their continental domains were lost by John. Though the Angevin Dynasty was short-lived, their male line descendants included the House of Plantagenet, the House of Lancaster and the House of York. The Angevins formulated England's royal coat of arms, which usually showed other kingdoms held or claimed by them or their successors, although without representation of Ireland for quite some time. Dieu et mon droit has generally been used as the motto of English monarchs since being adopted by Edward III, but it was first used as a battle cry by Richard I in 1198 at the Battle of Gisors, when he defeated the forces of Philip II of France, after which, he made it his motto. * Henry II of England * Richard I of England * John, King of England House of Plantagenet The House of Plantagenet takes its name from Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou, husband of the Empress Matilda and father of Henry II. The name Plantagenet itself was unknown as a family name per se until Richard of York adopted it as his family name in the 15th century. It has since been retroactively applied to English monarchs from Henry II onward. It is common among modern historians to refer to Henry II and his sons as the "Angevins" due to their vast continental Empire, most of the Angevin kings before John spent more time in their continental possessions than in England. It is from the time of Henry III, after the loss of most of the family's continental possessions, that the Plantagenet kings became more English in nature. The Houses of Lancaster and York are cadet branches of the House of Plantagenet. * Henry III of England * Edward I of England * Edward II of England * Edward III of England * Richard II of England House of Lancaster * Henry IV of England * Henry V of England * Henry VI of England House of York * Edward IV of England House of Lancaster (restored) * Henry VI of England House of York (restored) * Edward IV of England * Edward V of England * Richard III of England House of Tudor The Tudors descended matrilineally from John Beaufort, one of the illegitimate children of John of Gaunt (third surviving son of Edward III), by Gaunt's long-term mistress Katherine Swynford. Those descended from English monarchs only through an illegitimate child would normally have no claim on the throne, but the situation was complicated when Gaunt and Swynford eventually married in 1396 (25 years after John Beaufort's birth). In view of the marriage, the church retroactively declared the Beauforts legitimate via a papal bull the same year (also enshrined in an Act of Parliament in 1397). A subsequent proclamation by John of Gaunt's legitimate son, King Henry IV, also recognized the Beauforts' legitimacy, but declared them ineligible ever to inherit the throne. Nevertheless, the Beauforts remained closely allied with Gaunt's other descendants, the Royal House of Lancaster. John Beaufort's granddaughter Lady Margaret Beaufort was married to Edmund Tudor. Tudor was the son of Welsh courtier Owain Tudur (anglicized to Owen Tudor) and Catherine of Valois, the widowed queen consort of the Lancastrian King Henry V. Edmund Tudor and his siblings were either illegitimate, or the product of a secret marriage, and owed their fortunes to the goodwill of their legitimate half-brother King Henry VI. When the House of Lancaster fell from power, the Tudors followed. By the late 15th century, the Tudors were the last hope for the Lancaster supporters. Edmund Tudor's son became king as Henry VII after defeating Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485, ending the Wars of the Roses. King Henry married Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV, thereby uniting the Lancastrian and York lineages. With Henry VIII's break from the Roman Catholic Church, the monarch became the Supreme Head of the Church of England and of the Church of Ireland. Elizabeth I's title became the Supreme Governor of the Church of England. * Henry VII of England * Henry VIII of England * Edward VI of England *Mary I of England * Elizabeth I of England House of Stuart Following the death of Elizabeth I in 1603 without issue, her cousin, James VI, King of Scots, succeeded to the English throne as James I in the Union of the Crowns. James was descended from the Tudors through his great-grandmother, Margaret Tudor, the eldest daughter of Henry VII. In 1604, he adopted the title King of Great Britain. However, the two parliaments remained separate until the Acts of Union 1707. * James VI and I * Charles I of England * Charles II of England * James II of England *Mary II of England *William III of England * Anne, Queen of Great Britain Timeline of English monarchs ImageSize = width:1300 height:auto barincrement:12 PlotArea = top:10 bottom:30 right:130 left:20 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = yyyy Period = from:927 till:1707 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:100 start:1000 ScaleMinor = unit:year increment:25 start:950 Colors = id:canvas value:rgb(1,1,1) id:w value:rgb(0.75,0.25,0.75) id:d value:yellow id:n value:green id:a value:rgb(1,0.5,0.5) id:l value:red id:y value:rgb(0.75,0,0) id:t value:rgb(0.5,0.5,1) id:s value:orange id:cw value:rgb(0.8,0.8,0.8) id:eon value:Black Backgroundcolors = canvas:canvas BarData = barset:Rulers bar:eon PlotData= align:center textcolor:black fontsize:8 mark:(line,black) width:25 shift:(0,-5) bar:eon color:eon from: 927 till: 1013 color: w text:Wessex from: 1013 till: 1014 color: d from: 1014 till: 1016 color: w from: 1016 till: 1042 color: d text:Denmark from: 1042 till: 1066 color: w text: from: 1066 till: 1154 color: n text:Normandy from: 1154 till: 1216 color: a text:Angevin from: 1216 till: 1399 color: a text:Plantagenet from: 1399 till: 1461 color: l text:Lancaster from: 1461 till: 1470 color: y text: from: 1470 till: 1471 color: l text: from: 1471 till: 1485 color: y text:York from: 1485 till: 1603 color: t text:Tudor from: 1603 till: 1653 color: s text:Stuart from: 1653 till: 1660 color: cw text:CW from: 1660 till: 1707 color: s text: width:5 align:left fontsize:S shift:(5,-4) anchor:till barset:Rulers from:927 till: 939 color:w text:"Æthelstan" from:939 till: 946 color:w text:"Edmund I" from:946 till: 955 color:w text:"Eadred" from:955 till: 959 color:w text:"Eadwig" from:959 till: 975 color:w text:"Edgar" from:975 till: 978 color:w text:"Edward the Martyr" from:978 till: 1013 color:w text:"Æthelred" from:1013 till: 1014 color:d text:"Sweyn" from:1014 till: 1016 color:w text:"Æthelred" from:1016 till: 1016 color:w text:"Edmund II" from:1016 till: 1035 color:d text:"Cnut" from:1035 till: 1040 color:d text:"Harold I" from:1040 till: 1042 color:d text:"Harthacnut" from:1042 till: 1066 color:w text:"Edward the Confessor" from:1066 till: 1066 color:w text:"Harold II" from:1066 till: 1066 color:w text:"Edgar the Ætheling" from:1066 till: 1087 color:n text:"William I" from:1087 till: 1100 color:n text:"William II" from:1100 till: 1135 color:n text:"Henry I" from:1135 till: 1154 color:n text:"Stephen" from:1141 till: 1141 color:n text:"Matilda" from:1154 till: 1189 color:a text:"Henry II" from:1170 till: 1189 color:a text:"Henry the Young King" from:1189 till: 1199 color:a text:"Richard I" from:1199 till: 1216 color:a text:"John" from:1216 till: 1272 color:a text:"Henry III" from:1272 till: 1307 color:a text:"Edward I" from:1307 till: 1327 color:a text:"Edward II" from:1327 till: 1377 color:a text:"Edward III" from:1377 till: 1399 color:a text:"Richard II" from:1399 till: 1413 color:l text:"Henry IV" from:1413 till: 1422 color:l text:"Henry V" from:1422 till: 1461 color:l text:"Henry VI" from:1461 till: 1470 color:y text:"Edward IV" from:1470 till: 1471 color:l text:"Henry VI" from:1471 till: 1483 color:y text:"Edward IV" from:1483 till: 1483 color:y text:"Edward V" from:1483 till: 1485 color:y text:"Richard III" from:1485 till: 1509 color:t text:"Henry VII" from:1509 till: 1547 color:t text:"Henry VIII" from:1547 till: 1553 color:t text:"Edward VI" from:1553 till: 1553 color:t text:"Jane" from:1553 till: 1558 color:t text:"Mary I" from:1554 till: 1558 color:t text:"Philip" from:1558 till: 1603 color:t text:"Elizabeth I" from:1603 till: 1625 color:s text:"James I" from:1625 till: 1653 color:s text:"Charles I" from:1653 till: 1658 color:cw text:"Oliver Cromwell" from:1658 till: 1660 color:cw text:"Richard Cromwell" from:1660 till: 1685 color:s text:"Charles II" from:1685 till: 1689 color:s text:"James II" from:1689 till: 1702 color:s text:"William III" from:1689 till: 1694 color:s text:"Mary II" from:1702 till: 1707 color:s text:"Anne" barset:skip Titles The standard title for all monarchs from Æthelstan until the time of King John was Rex Anglorum ("King of the English"). In addition, many of the pre-Norman kings assumed extra titles, as follows: *Æthelstan: Rex totius Britanniae ("King of the Whole of Britain") *Edmund the Magnificent: Rex Britanniæ ("King of Britain") and Rex Anglorum cæterarumque gentium gobernator et rector ("King of the English and of other peoples governor and director") *Eadred: Regis qui regimina regnorum Angulsaxna, Norþhymbra, Paganorum, Brettonumque ("Reigning over the governments of the kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxons, Northumbrians, Pagans, and British") *Eadwig the Fair: Rex nutu Dei Angulsæxna et Northanhumbrorum imperator paganorum gubernator Breotonumque propugnator ("King by the will of God, Emperor of the Anglo-Saxons and Northumbrians, governor of the pagans, commander of the British") *Edgar the Peaceful: Totius Albionis finitimorumque regum basileus ("Autocrat of all Albion and its neighbouring realms") *Canute: Rex Anglorum totiusque Brittannice orbis gubernator et rector ("King of the English and of all the British sphere governor and director") and Brytannie totius Anglorum monarchus ("Monarch of all the English of Britain") In the Norman period Rex Anglorum remained standard, with occasional use of Rex Anglie ("King of England"). The Empress Matilda styled herself Domina Anglorum ("Lady of the English"). From the time of King John onwards all other titles were eschewed in favour of Rex or Regina Anglie. In 1604 James I, who had inherited the English throne the previous year, adopted the title (now usually rendered in English rather than Latin) King of Great Britain. The English and Scottish parliaments, however, did not recognize this title until the Acts of Union of 1707 under Queen Anne (who was of course Queen of Great Britain rather than king). Acts of Union The Acts of Union 1707 were a pair of Parliamentary Acts passed during 1706 and 1707 by the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland to put into effect the Treaty of Union agreed on July 22, 1706. The Acts joined the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland (previously separate sovereign states, with separate legislatures but with the same monarch) into the Kingdom of Great Britain. England, Scotland, and Ireland had shared a monarch for more than a hundred years, since the Union of the Crowns in 1603, when King James VI of Scotland inherited the English and Irish thrones from his first cousin twice removed, Queen Elizabeth I. Although described as a Union of Crowns, until 1707 there were in fact two separate Crowns resting on the same head. There had been attempts in 1606, 1667, and 1689, to unite England and Scotland by Acts of Parliament, but it was not until the early eighteenth century that the idea had the support of both political establishments behind it, albeit for rather different reasons. Category:Browse Category:Royalty Category:English Category:Monarchs